From its inception, Bombay bore the markers of its modernity. Unlike most towns in India, perhaps anywhere, it did not develop at first out of its role as a seat of power or as a centre of administration. Nor did it emerge as a market, organically linked to its hinterland. Its origins lay in a tawdry settlement by a Europe poised on the cusp of modernity. In 1661, the Portuguese crown granted it to the British as part of Charles II's dowry when he married Catherine of Braganza. At the time, it consisted of a cluster of small islands, sparsely inhabited, if at all, off the west coast of India. It is doubtful whether the Mughals, pushing south in search of revenues, Shivaji seeking to improve his authority of the Deccan or any of the regional satraps of the subcontinent were aware of its existence. The gloss of modernity soon faded. The Crown quickly transferred its worthless possession to the East India Company. The Company over the next century duly considered abandoning it on several occasions. By the 1730s, the Company's factors, subordinated by Indian merchants in the trade of the much more prosperous port of Surat, recognized that they could use Bombay's natural harbour to build ships and deploy them to protect their consignments from ‘pirates’ in the Indian Ocean.